The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) is the entity led
by Amb. Paul Bremer that is responsible for managing and
overseeing the reconstruction of Iraq.

But what species of organization is the CPA? And how exactly
was it established? These are mysteries.

"It is unclear whether CPA is a federal agency," according to
a new report from the Congressional Research Service that is
the bureaucratic equivalent of a "thriller."

"No explicit, unambiguous, and authoritative statement has
been provided that declares how the authority was
established, under what authority, and by whom."

Clarification of the CPA's nature and status "will remain
relevant even after CPA's scheduled dissolution on June 30,
2004, for questions may remain about what it did, how it
spent money, and what it accomplished."

The new CRS report probes the matter in wonkish depth over 38
pages later but without a clear resolution. A copy of the
report was obtained by Secrecy News.

Direct public access to CRS reports like these is not
authorized, and is in fact discouraged, by the U.S.
Congress.

DECLASSIFICATION OF CLARKE TESTIMONY SOUGHT

Classification policy continues to serve as a surrogate
battlefield for disputes over the Iraq war, September 11,
and related issues.

In an April 28 letter, House Democrats asked Speaker of the
House Dennis Hastert to expedite the declassification of
testimony presented in 2002 by then-counterterrorism adviser
Richard Clarke. (Strictly speaking, the Speaker does not
have the authority to perform such declassification.) See
their letter here:

Likewise, Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) this week proposed to
introduce an amendment expressing the sense of the Senate
that the Clarke testimony should be declassified, though it
was not introduced in the end due to procedural obstacles.
See the text here:

The Justice Department on Wednesday declassified and posted
on the web more documents pertaining to former Deputy
Attorney General Jamie Gorelick, currently a member of the
9/11 Commission, and her role in implementing the legal
"wall" that distinguished intelligence and law enforcement
information.

The Justice Department was responding -- with uncommon
alacrity -- to a request from Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) for release of such records.
They had requested declassification of the documents a mere
two days earlier.

Unexpectedly, the Justice move drew a rebuke from the White
House.

"I think [the President is] disappointed that that
information was placed on their Web site like that," said
White House spokesman Scott McClellan. "We were not
involved in that."

A copy of the newly declassified documents, which remain on
the Justice Department web site despite the White House
expression of disappointment, is here (29 pages, 1.5 MB PDF
file):

A statute known as the Smith Amendment, enacted in October
2000, prohibits the Defense Department from granting or
renewing a security clearance for anyone who has been
convicted of a felony and sentenced to a year or more in
jail.

Since the measure was adopted, "hundreds of people, many of
whom who have had clearances for 20 or 30 years, have had
their security clearances revoked," notes Sheldon I. Cohen,
a specialist in security clearance policy.

This is not entirely good news, Cohen argues, because in
practice the new policy does not allow sufficient leeway for
special circumstances or the passage of time, and so it
excludes persons who need not or should not be excluded from
the personnel security clearance system.

The Defense Department was supposed to report to Congress
last January on the implementation of the policy, but has
still failed to do so.

"Hopefully," suggests Cohen, "when the Department of Defense
does file its assessment report, the adverse effect of the
Smith Amendment on the national defense will become so
obvious it will be repealed."

The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), whatever its
provenance and powers may be, authorized the Iraqi Governing
Council earlier this month to establish a new Iraqi
intelligence service.

The function of the new Iraqi National Intelligence Service
(INIS) is "to collect, analyze, and disseminate accurate and
timely information related to the national defense and other
threats to the security of Iraq."

"The INIS will be a wholly distinct and separate entity from
any intelligence services that have previously existed in
Iraq," according to CPA Order 69, issued in April 2004.

The Charter of the new Iraqi National Intelligence Service
(INIS) may be found here (9 pages, 700 KB PDF file):